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Culture
Choose Your Payne
Diablo III is this week’s long-anticipated release, but it is not the only one. Max Payne 3 also arrives on consoles, as does the Game of Thrones adaptation. It’s a busy mid-May for both physical releases and downloadable titles. Tuesday • Diablo III (PC, Mac) • Max Payne 3 (360, PS3) • Game of Thrones…
By Owen Good Published May 13, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Simple Math
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published May 9.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published May 7.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published May 13, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallA Moment To Re-Experience The Amazing Intro To Full Throttle
Has it been a while since you last played Full Throttle? I’m guessing it has. Sit back, relax, and watch the intro movie from the game. I remember the gravel-voiced intro, the long shots of the road… but more than anything I remember that song that kicks in when Ben ramps his bike over that…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 12, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallBecause Nothing Says “Exciting World War II Airplane Action” Like A Flying Baby
Most everyone has some memory or another of 1943, the top-down airplane bullet-hell shooter to which we all lost a good deal of quarters. When I think of 1943, I think of things like “Difficulty” and “Insane Difficulty.” I do not, however, think of a flying baby. But in the Japanese ad campaign for the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 11, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
A Red Dead Redemption Ghost Story to Chill Your Bones
They say Red Dead Redemption is haunted, you know. They’ve said it for years now—ghosts exist in the system, devils and spooks and specters and maybe even a class-5 full-roaming vapor or two. I’ve never encountered any ghosts in the game myself, but I’ve heard and read enough accounts that I’m willing to believe something…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 11, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallWhat an Old Game Boy Can Teach us About Men’s Toilets
Via Vice mag’s tech site, Motherboard, we get a look at one of the best pieces of work ever done on a Game Boy. And it’s not even a game. In response to recent excitement over things like the iPhone’s Game Boy camera app, Michael Byrne shares this clip, made by some friends of his…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 10, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Japanese Game That Was Played in English, Based on Shakespeare
The Book of Watermarks is an adventure game released in Japan, and only in Japan, in 1999. Rare for a Japanese adventure game, it featured full-motion video acting and 3D visuals. Oh, and it also tipped its hat to the work of William Shakespeare. Though it’s of course heavily inspired by Myst, being a puzzle-based…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 10, 2012 -
Culture
From Dune to Dublin’s Wilderness to Zombies, This Art Has Seen it All
Mark Molnar is a concept artist and illustrator who has worked with of the biggest names in entertainment. People like WETA, Games Workshop, Time Warner and Square Enix. To see more of his work, check out his personal site Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 10, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallArcade Lights Made Michael J Fox’s Hair Look Magnificent
Of all the teen movies that crawled out of the 1980s, High School USA was far from the finest. And yet here we are, watching a scene of it, right here on Kotaku. Why? Because Michael J Fox is in it, looking divine. And because it reminds us Crispin Glover has always been a little…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
What Arcades Looked Like Before Video Games
The word “arcade” is these days synonymous with video games, but it wasn’t always that way. In 1968, there was no such thing as a consumer video game. So arcades had to make do the old-fashioned way. With pinball machines, novelty amusement machines and lightgun games. There was even room for a fortune teller. These…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
Culture
The Concept Art Behind The Avengers
Pardon this brief interruption to our regular video game concept art schedule, but I figured a movie that’s on track to be one of the biggest of all time – and one starring a whole bunch of awesome superheroes – was worth the detour. This art is the work of Nathan Schroeder, for whom The…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 9, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallDo Classic Sega Arcade Games Make you Want to Buy Burgers?
I’m not American, and I don’t live in America, so my familiarity with Sonic (apparently a drive-in burger chain) is limited. I am however very familiar with classic arcade racer OutRun, which Sonic is tapping into with this retro-infused commercial. Sonic Drive-Thru Guys / Out Run Commercial [PatrickScottPatterson]
By Luke Plunkett Published May 8, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Japanese Box Art vs Western Box Art
As a box art fetishist, this might be the best website I’ve ever seen. It’s called Box vs Box, and its purpose is to compare the box art of Japanese video games and their Western counterparts. Sometimes it’s a straight Japan vs US matchup, other times it’s a three-way royal rumble, with PAL games joining…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 8, 2012 -
Culture
The Wonderful Place Where Diablo III Meets Robots
Phroilan Gardner spent a few years at Blizzard as a concept artist, working on stuff like World of Warcraft and Diablo III, as well as spin-off projects like trading cards and novels. He’s not there anymore, but his art – and the stuff he’s come up with since – lives on! Gardner, who now works…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 8, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Before Menu Screens, we Adjusted Consoles With Buttons
These wonderful shots are courtesy of Bleeping Relics, and show the control boards of a trio of old Pong consoles. These old analog systems weren’t adjusted via menu screens or fancy UI systems. If you wanted to change something, well, there was a button right there on the console. Bleeping Relics [Flickr]
By Luke Plunkett Published May 7, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallStraight from 1990, One Kid’s Adorable Painstaking VHS Guide for Beating Mega Man
Before the internet existed, millions of players toiled away in lonely obscurity to find the best way to beat the oh-so-hard games of yesteryear. Lots of us scribbled in notebooks, drew our own maps and called tips lines to figure out how to beat the games we were obsessed with. And then we shared this…
By Evan Narcisse Published May 7, 2012 -
Culture
Have a Lollipop, Batman. You’ve Earned it.
Leonid “leopardsnow” Enin is currently working as a concept artist with mobile gaming powerhouse Gameloft. He’s also done work for other video game companies like Sidhe and Realtime Worlds. Say what you will about Gameloft’s games, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this artwork. On the contrary. It’s fantastic, even if a lot of it is…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 7, 2012 -
Culture
What’s Yours is Mine
Mother’s Day isn’t typically a huge sales weekend for video games and the upcoming launch schedule reflects that. Minecraft‘s console release is the week’s only highlight. Tuesday Warlock: Master of the Arcane (PC) Asura’s Wrath: Lost Episode 1 – At Last, Someone Angrier Than Me (PSN, XBLA) Datura (PS3) Wednesday Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (360)…
By Owen Good Published May 6, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Crowded Source
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published May 4.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 30.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…
By Owen Good Published May 6, 2012